Printed from the Society, Religion and Technology Project website: www.srtp.org.uk

The God Particle Play is back for 2016!

Published: Feb 11, 2016

A scientist and vicar walk into a bar...

A quantum physicist and a vicar walk into a bar. Joining forces to solve a perplexing mystery, they discover the real meaning of faith, knowledge, love and the importance of keeping an open mind.

“The God Particle”, a romantic comedy with a hint of sci-fi, will be touring the UK from late March to early June, including a number of performances in Churches of Scotland (17th- 23rd Feb; see www.thegodparticleplay.com/#!2016-tour-dates/cee5 for further details).

Written by James Cary, award-winning co-writer of BBC1’s Miranda, BBC3’s Bluestone 42 and Radio 4’s Another Case of Milton Jones, The God particle enjoyed a sell- out run at the 2015 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and is described as being “deep, smart, and very funny.”

Mr Cary explained that he wrote The God Particle out of frustration. He said: “Most Christian characters in movies or TV shows are one of two types- either the extremely stupid Christian who respond with bafflement to questions about their faith in a way that suggests that they have never thought about these issues before, or the angry Christian who responds to questions with rage or fury, as if questions and challenges are inherently bad and all disagreement must be shut down. Either way, Christian characters on TV tend not be measured, reasonable, good-humoured and intelligent all at the same time. And many Christians I know are measured, reasonable, good-humoured and intelligent.

So Mr Cary decided to write a play in which a scientist fires numerous questions at a vicar who has some good answers, as well as a few questions of his own. The result is play is a slightly odd mix of romantic comedy and science fiction, which takes place in a curiously named village called Threepiggs, which is next to an Institute of Advanced Quantum Theory. The new vicar, Gilbert, arrives and is keen to track down his predecessor, Father Steel who has strangely disappeared. He is joined on this journey by Dr Bex Kenworthy, who is a Quantum Physicist, and skeptical about all things religious. Despite their differences, Gilbert and Rebecca discover they have an awful lot to talk about. One of the key themes of the play is what it means to have an open mind. The GK Chesterton quotation comes up: “The purpose of having a mind is the same as having an open mouth - to close it on something solid.” In the play, Bex argues that a good scientist would never close their mind on anything, whereas Gilbert contends that Bex has closed her mind on the scientific process.

Mr Cary said: “The feedback on the play so far is that it has been successful in this. But you and your friends, of course, can judge that for yourself.”